Ask most practice owners why their marketing feels flat, and AHPRA comes up within the first minute.
“We can’t advertise like everyone else.”
“Our hands are tied.”
“You just can’t say anything interesting in this industry.”
But that’s not true.
AHPRA restricts a fairly short and very specific list of tactics. What a lot of practices are actually doing is treating that list as a ceiling over the entire industry, then building nothing underneath it.
- AHPRA's rules are narrower than most practices assume: no testimonials about clinical outcomes, no unsubstantiated therapeutic claims, tight rules around before-and-after imagery, no fear-based urgency.
- Almost everything else in marketing is still on the table: patient education, practitioner expertise, operational reviews, transparent pricing, digital PR, a website that actually works.
- The tactics AHPRA bans are mostly the ones that are no good for trust or patient safety anyway. The Venn diagram of effective marketing and compliant marketing is almost a circle.
A borrowed fear
The myth usually hasn’t come from AHPRA directly. It’s come from a practice that got pinged for a testimonial video, an agency that promised outcomes it had no business promising, or a colleague’s second-hand version of a story that’s grown in the retelling (they do that).
AHPRA’s actual guidelines are written for regulators, not marketers, so most people never read them and instead absorb the vibe: this industry can’t really do marketing.
That vibe is expensive. A practice that believes it can’t market itself competitively ends up with a generic website, a Facebook page that posts twice a year, and a reliance on referrals that dries up the moment a competitor down the road tries harder.
The thing most clinics are struggling with is not really understanding where the line is and subsequently standing metres behind it. Just in case.
The actual list
It’s worth being specific, because that vague fear is what has caused this massive overcorrection.
Reviews
AHPRA’s Section 133 restrictions ban testimonials about clinical care. A patient can’t be quoted saying a treatment worked, and that extends to written reviews, video testimonials, and star ratings tied to outcomes. Reviews about the experience (parking, wait times, how the front desk handled things) aren’t caught by this.
Therapeutic claims
Therapeutic claims need real evidence behind them. “Clinically proven” has to mean something, not just sound reassuring. Guarantee-style language is out too: permanent, guaranteed, pain-free, miracle, because no responsible practitioner can promise a universal outcome anyway.
Before and after photos
Before-and-after photos have to be real, consented, and presented honestly, with rules tightened further by the cosmetic procedure guidelines that came into effect in September 2025.
Urgency
And anything built on manufactured urgency, countdown timers and pressure tactics pushing people toward elective procedures is off the table.
That’s the whole list. Notice what each one has in common? Every item on it is a tactic that only works by misleading someone. AHPRA hasn’t banned good marketing, just marketing that’s a bit icky anyway.
The rest of the field is empty
After that list, you’re left with heaps of options. And they’re what actually moves a healthcare marketing plan forward: content that answers the questions your patients are already searching for, practitioner bios and commentary that show real expertise, transparent pricing so people know what to expect before they call, a Google Business Profile that’s actually maintained, digital PR and expert commentary that build authority without touching outcomes, and a website that loads fast and makes booking easy.
None of it requires a single testimonial or a claim you can’t back up. And the crazy thing about it is that a lot of these areas are left untouched by other clinics and practices. You can set your business apart by just hitting the basics.
Trust already does the selling
Healthcare is a high-trust purchase decision by nature. People are choosing who treats them, not which toothpaste brand to buy.
In marketing, we talk about social proof all the time. When you’re looking for a tradie or a childcare provider, what others have to say about them matters. You know a plumber knows how to unblock a toilet; you want to know about the experience surrounding the unblocking before you choose them.
When it comes to a psychologist, it’s a little bit different. Landing on a page, seeing a warm smile of the psychologist you’re considering, and seeing that they’re experienced in supporting the exact issue you’re seeking support for means more than five stars ever could.
Building a marketing strategy that’s ethical and compliant by nature is also a really great way to futureproof your plan. In 2025, AHPRA did a big tighten-up of the cosmetic procedure guidelines. But that’s not a once-off thing. They revisit these rules periodically, and if your strategy is built on just being useful and transparent, you’ll be far away from the boundary, no matter what.
A few places to start
A quick audit of your website and social channels is the logical first step.
Most practices have at least one old testimonial or outcome claim sitting on a page nobody’s looked at in a while or an old post you didn’t quite think through.
From there, the best next step is usually content: a handful of genuinely useful pages or posts answering the questions patients are already typing into Google before they call. Chat with your admin team; they’ll typically have a laundry list of questions everyone asks before booking.
Pricing transparency and a properly optimised Google Business Profile are the last basics to tick off. Google Business Profile isn’t that exciting but it does more for bookings than most practice owners think.
And if you want to take it a step further
Great photography is the secret! And while we would recommend our in-house photographer, Aling (she has a knack for getting gorgeous shots in-clinic), iPhone-shot is often good enough.
Capture nice photos of your clinic or practice looking inviting and grab photos of your team. Having nice, warm photos of the people your patients will actually meet with is key to converting more of your website visitors or social media followers.
One last thing
This is general guidance. AHPRA’s rules shift over time and can land differently depending on your profession and the specific service you’re advertising, so treat everything above as a steer in the right direction rather than the final word. If you’re ever unsure where a specific claim or piece of content sits, check it against AHPRA’s current guidelines for your registration type before it goes live.
The practices pulling ahead right now aren’t the ones pushing right up against AHPRA’s line and “getting away with it”. They’re the ones who stopped treating the guidelines as an excuse for bland marketing and started using the space AHPRA actually leaves open. That space is bigger than most people think, and almost nobody’s using all of it.
If you want a hand figuring out what that looks like for your practice, chat to us.
